Feature: Experiential marketing: Show and tell

Ian Allchild has been running exhibitions for over 30 years and is not ready to write their obituary. Despite the rise of the internet, he still believes there is a need for people to meet companies and brands face to face. “If you go to the web instead of an exhibition, you can’t see a product properly, you can’t touch it, you can’t smell it, you can’t talk about it,” he says.

With his current business-to-business show, April’s Promotional Marketing Exhibition, he says companies must see it as “live marketing”, which applies equally to brands seeking to engage with people at business-to-consumer (B2C) events. “All the different factors of marketing come out at an exhibition.”

Consumer-oriented shows continue to thrive, with close to half a million people attending the UK’s top annual exhibition, the British International Motor Show. However, Joss Davidge, business and marketing development director of BEcause Experiential Marketing, says a “woefully small” number of brands are taking advantage of the opportunities at these events. “Most brands approach exhibitions with a dire lack of imagination and creativity,” he claims.

“The flat, dull delivery of a salesperson thrusting leaflets into the hands of passers-by, from behind a table in a row of box-like compartments, is all too common. There’s usually no dialogue, and certainly no emotional engagement. The consumer just simply takes the sample and consumes, or throws it in the bin minutes later, quickly forgetting the brand name or anything about it.”

At last year’s Baby Show, which attracted nearly 25,000 people over three days, BEcause transformed the Pampers stand into a 16-metre, multi-coloured sleeper train that mothers could board to find out about how a baby’s mind develops while it is sleeping. Each carriage used oversized props and interactive features, with trained staff – many of them mothers themselves – providing guidance.

About 80 per cent of the 13,000 people that boarded the train said they were “likely” or “very likely” to buy Pampers nappies in future. “The fact that 70 per cent of participants also went on to tell two or three others about their experience shows how powerful experiential marketing can be in an age when consumers are often cynical of marketing and increasingly empowered by their peers,” comments Davidge.

The value of exhibitions is an audience that is more targeted than crowds passing an experiential roadshow in a shopping centre. Emma Ede, managing director of experiential agency iD, says: “What exhibitions do offer brands that is unique to other environments is that consumers arrive with the intent to engage directly with brands. Therefore other promotional elements running alongside the experiential activity may prove more successful as there is a much more receptive audience.”

Agencies are often tasked by brands to develop a stand to tour different shows, but Bruce Gardner, director at experiential agency Sense, warns that activity should be tailored to add value to the consumer experience. “In environments where consumers have paid entrance fees, it is crucial that brands understand how their presence can feel part of the show, rather than simply being bolt-ons.”

Sense put together a campaign to demonstrate and sell Canon products, targeting shows with the right demographics, such as the Boat Show and petrolheads’ MPH show, but tailoring the experience. At the Baby Show, it built a photo studio to enable visitors to take shots of their children and print out free pictures to take away. At the Ski and Snowboard Show, consumers were invited onto a viewing platform to receive tips from experts and take shots of snowboarders doing tricks. Then for gadget fans at the Stuff Show, a studio was set up to give amateur photographers a chance to receive tips and shoot pictures of a fashion model.

At the Wine Show, Sense immersed consumers in a French wine experience, creating six bays that replicated settings for drinking wine such as a dinner party, a night-in and Christmas. With 87 per cent of visitors saying it was the best part of the show, it led to 93 per cent believing it made them look at French wines in a more contemporary way.

Davidge at BEcause says interaction is key to establishing a lasting relationship with consumers. “Exhibitions are not about talking ‘at’ consumers, but about talking ‘with’ them,” he explains. “They are about creating experiences that consumers will remember long after they have left the show.

“Another advantage of targeting audiences at exhibitions is that there is a high chance they’re opinion formers, there to find out about the latest and greatest products in their sector of interest. By transforming them into brand advocates, you can help to spread your message on a wider scale.”

The Portman Consultancy helps brands to turn experiences into something lasting, producing customised entertainment media such as music, films, TV and video games which can be given away at shows. “Entertainment can add memorability to a B2C exhibition where engagement with consumers can be brief and unmemorable,” says director James Cullen. “By combining the brand experience of the event with a relevant and exciting entertainment element, the experience will produce a more enduring impact and deliver the brand message in a lasting way.”

Davidge at BEcause concedes that some marketers are waking up to the opportunities of B2C shows. “Amid the melee of mediocrity in the exhibition market, there is as growing contingent of savvy brands that are beginning to catch on to the possibilities of adding a bit of theatre to their presence on the show floor,” he says. “But, arguably, consumer exhibitions are the ideal environment for experiential marketing and many marketers are missing a trick.”

Case study: Metro (pictured above)

Sledge devised an experience at the 2007 Metro Ski and Snowboard Show to leverage the Metro newspaper’s headline sponsorship and strengthen its association with the travel and wellbeing sector. It created an inflatable igloo structure, the Metro Iglu, where consumers were encouraged to dress up in 1980s retro ski wear for a complementary “blue screen” photo shoot. Visitors left with a postcard-style photograph, superimposed to show them and their friends on a snow scene background of their choice.

The 20 funniest photos were shown on the Metro’s website, with the best winning an Option snowboard worth £350. An average of 470 photos were taken a day.Promotional staff dressed in retro ski gear, and there was a small chill-out area for visitors to relax and listen to 80s music.

In a separate location, Sledge created a snow-capped stand at the show’s entrance, with promotional staff directing people to the Metro Iglu. Visitors rated the Iglu the second-best attraction at the show, with 62 per cent of people recalling Metro as one of the primary sponsors.

Case study: Yeo Valley Organic

Experiential agency iD has re-created an outdoor space indoors for ongoing experiential activity for Yeo Valley Organic at exhibitions such as the health and lifestyle event, the Vitality Show. The outdoors atmosphere projects the brand’s natural values while providing a multi-sensory experience for consumers. A floor of synthetic grass has greatly increased consumers’ dwelling time at the stand, providing them with a comfortable floor space to rest on. Consumers have also been issued with money-off coupons for their next in-store purchase of the brand, which touched close to 20 per cent redemption rate in 2006.